Jigawa, a north-eastern state with an average of 12-hour daily sunlight and a total land area of approximately 22,410 square kilometres has been picked by the federal government to host a 2000 megawatts solar farm – Nigeria’s first large scale public funded solar farm.
The country’s power minister, Mr. Babatunde Fashola disclosed this when he spoke at a recent function organised by local newspaper, BusinessDay in Lagos.
Fashola said procurement processes for the construction of the solar farm was already in place, starting with its design.
He also noted that the solar farm would be modelled after Noor Power Station, a 160 megawatts solar power complex located in the Drâa-Tafilalet region in Morocco.
Jigawa is characterized by undulating land, with sand dunes of various sizes spanning several kilometres in parts of the State.
Fashola however stated that Nigeria which signed power purchase agreements with 14 solar power investors in July 2016 to build solar farms that would generate and supply 1125 megawatts to the national grid, had initiated the 2000 megawatts solar farm and would go ahead to conclude it.
He added that landed space for the farm has already been allocated while a team has started work on the project.
The minister equally blamed Nigeria’s current challenges in electricity supply to its dependence largely on gas to the neglect of other sources of energy that are also available to it.
He noted that his ministry has developed an energy mix and would expect 30 per cent of national supplies from renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
